I would like to begin with a fable by Aesop, who lived in ancient Greece 2500 years ago.
“A hawk long had his eye on a flock of pigeons, but no matter how often he had swooped down upon them from the sky they had always had been able to reach their cote in safety. Thinking that it might be his shadow they had spied, he waited for a cloudy day for his next attack, but still to no avail.
“At length, the hungry hawk decided to use craft instead of attack. From the top of a nearby dead tree, he called down to the pigeons: ‘Why do you prefer this life of constant fear and anxiety when, if you would make me your king, I could patrol the sky and make you safe from any attack that could be made upon you?!
“The foolish pigeons, believing the hawk’s interest to be sincere, called him to the throne as their king and their protector. But no sooner was he established there than he issued an order that every day one pigeon would have to be sacrificed for his dinner.”
The moral of this story is: They who voluntarily put themselves under the power of a tyrant deserve whatever fate they receive.
Does this sound familiar to you? This moral applies today as it did 2500 years ago, even more so, and has been proven throughout the ages.
We, the people of the United States, are facing this threat again, this time under the power of Donald Trump, and his followers.
What I am about to say here has been published in both The Economist and The New York Times, and it is about Trump’s plans should he ever regain the Presidency, and they are not good.
There are organizations now planning Trump’s new agenda, and the main purposes are to greatly expand his presidential powers, reduce and even abolish independent organizations involved with the government, control ALL branches of the government, including Congress and the judicial system, and last, take away any and all rights any American citizen has, especially those of women and minorities.
In other words, Trump will have absolute authority over the entire United States. Can this really happen? Yes, and Trump has many in the government, especially in Congress, the Senate, and the Supreme Court to back him.
Will it happen? This depends on YOU, the voter. Like the pigeons in the fable, if you decide to put Trump back in office, you will deserve whatever fate you receive, and it will be a fate you will not like.
So what does Trump plan to do? Plenty, and he had help in planning his agenda from organizations like America First Policy Institute and the Heritage Foundation, both based in Texas. He also has a Schedule F to remove perceived obstructionists; i.e. anyone that gets in his way.
First, Trump wants to capture the civil service. Through this, he hopes to control the bureaucracy.
Trump’s “commandos,” in quotation marks, plans to deconstruct the administrative state. This state consists of over 300 federal offices that issue and interpret regulations. Trump intends to abolish regulations he does not like, in any field. With the dismantling of the administrative state, Trump will be able to do so.
The reality is, the government cannot function without the administrative state, but I think that is his scheme. Trump intends to dictate what will be done (hence the word, “dictator”) without the approval of Congress or the federal government, just by his own word.
An example is the Environmental Protection Agency, which issues anti-pollution laws to protect the environment. Abolish these laws, then polluting industries will just do whatever they want. They will, with the backing of certain Senators and Congressmen, will burn coal for energy to their heart’s content, thereby increasing the temperature of the Earth even more than it is now. This summer, 2023, is literally the hottest on record. Are we going to even make it hotter, literally broiling the Earth and killing its people with extreme heat? It’s happening now, so are they, the fossil fuel industries, going to make it worse? Does Trump and his followers even care?
If that isn’t enough, the fossil fuel lobby wants LESS alternative energy, even to abolish it, if possible. With the advent of electric cars, this may be impossible, fortunately. Nonetheless, they want to use more coal and oil, in spite of the increasing extreme heat.
The TPPE, Texas Public Policy Foundation, opposes the development of wind farms and solar plants. They may have thought up an excuse for this, but the real reason is for them to make billions from fossil fuels, especially oil.
This is but one example, but it WILL happen, and what I have just written is NO exaggeration. Just go outside on a summer day, and imagine the temperature increasing five or ten degrees.
It has already been proven that Trump does not care about the environment or climate change, and has even admitted it.
This is where the deconstruction of regulations will begin, and more is to come in other fields.
There is a separation of powers, independent of each other, being the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches of government, along with many independent departments. This insures checks and balances, which in turn insures that no one, be it the President or members of Congress will go to extremes, violating the Constitution or any laws pertaining to it.
Trump wants to do away with this process. He wants to control all three branches of government, being the President (himself), Congress, and the Supreme Court, the independent organizations and any and all departments, and his party is doing everything they can to do it, by nominating judges and department heads who will do Trump’s bidding. The Supreme Court is already packed and the House of Representatives has a narrow Republican majority, but if the Republican Party wins both the Senate and the House in 2024, there will be no stopping Trump.
Trump wants no independent agencies. Trump’s supporters have developed centers on bringing independent agencies under his thumb. Whatever they do, they will have to submit actions to the White House for review.
All this has been stated on his campaign website, where he proposes to bring everything under “presidential authority.”
The FCC, the Federal Communication Commission, and the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission are two of Trump’s top prizes for him to control. With the FCC, it means no saying anything negative about Trump on radio, TV, the internet, or any other broadcast band. The media has to agree with everything Trumps says, i.e. “Climate change is a hoax, and that’s that!”
With the FTC, Trump will determine how international trade will be performed.
Don’t forget the FDA, deregulating food and drugs for profits.
Every part of the federal government will be under Trump’s control, and he intends to remove anyone and everyone who opposes him and his policies in government. Trump only wants loyalists, and he will remove ALL constraints to get whatever he wants.
Trump also wants to control the federal budget, and regulate finance markets. If Congress appropriates government funds in a program that Trump doesn’t like, he plans to impound these funds. This could mean, no funds for any department if they go against Trump’s beliefs. (This was a tactic banned by the lawmakers under President Richard Nixon because of his own abuse of it. Trump wants to bring this back.) This could be anything, even programs present Trump supporters are benefitting from right now, so beware!
For those in the Civil Service, present employees are protected under laws insuring their employment, so they can’t be fired. These protections will be stripped, so if they oppose Trump in any way, they will be removed.
This also applies to intelligence agencies (FBI, CIA, etc.), the State Department affecting foreign relations, and license bureaucracies.
This incudes the Department of Education, to “find and remove radicals.” This means controlling what will be taught to children in our public schools, possibly brainwashing them, as in totalitarian states like Russia, China, and North Korea. Don’t forget, Trump has a love for these very leaders, being Putin, Xi, and Kim Jung-un.
There will be book bans, not only in schools, as Governor Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida now, but in the general public as well.
The Federal Reserve, which controls our money supply, is also in question. If it loses its independence, investors in the U.S. economy may become nervous.
Trump will lower taxes, for all industries and businesses that support him, but he will not be able to find the money to cover these tax cuts, unless it’s from the American people. This could lead to an economic catastrophe.
There will be NO independent agencies, NO separation of powers, and NO checks and balances.. Trump wants absolute power. He wants to completely control every part of the federal government. There will be NO internal resistance to act as a check on presidential power. If Trump throws a temper tantrum in the White House like he did in his previous administration, he will always get his way.
What will Trump do when all these obstacles are removed?
- He will complete the wall on the Mexican border.
- End automatic citizenship for anyone born in the U.S.
- There will be NO LGBTQ rights.
- There will be NO women’s rights.
- There will be NO rights for minorities. (Trump condones racial hatred.)
- There will be NO religious liberties (especially for the Muslims and Jews. There is a wave of anti-semitism rising, and Trump seems to be condoning it.)
- All regulations will be abolished for the sake of business profits, meaning NO environmental protection laws, and NO regulations for the safely of food, drugs, or any other consumer products.)
- We will desert Ukraine. We cannot allow this not only for the sake of Ukraine, but for the sake of the world. Doing so will be the final nail in the coffin of America’s standing in the world. The world will also become a more dangerous place, increasing wars, not decreasing them.
- Trump promised that he will pardon ALL rioters involved in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
- Trump will call of ALL criminal investigation involving him, and probably his friends, also…and the Department of Justice WILL do just that!
- Trump will exact revenge on everyone who ever crossed him during his first administration.
- There is a good chance that Trump will abolish the U.S. Constitution. He has publicly stated that he favors this.
Some of these proposals may sound good to the American voter, but removing guardrails (checks and balances) and centralizing greater power over our government will lead to tyranny, very fast.
Congress and the courts will eventually become resentful, but it will be too late. This will only lead to mayhem and chaos, even worse. Our society will break down. Hate and violence will rise, and factions with fight each other, leading to riots in the streets. Who knows what might happen after that.
Again, Trump wants absolute power over literally everything, and he just might get it.
Once America loses its freedoms, it will be very hard to get them back. Fascists regimes will succeed fascist regimes, and a new democratic movement may not rise again for 25 to 50 years, maybe more.
America’s leading position in the world will fall, and we may never get that back. What will the world be like then?
None of this has to happen!
There is a way to stop this. Vote, and don’t vote for Trump. Make sure he never returns to the White House.
If you are a Republican, make sure he does not get nominated, for any office. Trump is not helping your party, he’s hurting it, and he doesn’t care about the party, you, or anything else but himself.
Trump has also been indicted twice, and is up for two more indictments. Trump trial of keeping top secret documents past his tenure begins in May, and is up for three more trials. There is a good chance that he will go to jail.
Help disqualify Trump and put him in jail. Use the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to disqualify Trump for running for office, because of his part in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump can be stopped. He can be stopped legally within the confines of the law, and he can serve a prison sentence for the rest of his life. Help make this a reality.
YOU have the power to save this country, if you want to keep your rights and freedoms.
Alastair Browne
SOURCES
- The Hawk and the Pigeons, Aesop’s Fables, Easy Eye Books, Lancer Books, New York, 1968, pp. 45, 46.
2. Swan, Jonathan, Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman, “Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025,” The New York Times, July 17, 2023, pp. A1, A14.
3. “ The meticulous, ruthless preparations for a second Trump term,” The Economist, July 13, 2023, https://www.economist.com/briefing/ 2023/07/13/the-meticulous-ruthless-preparations-for-a-second-trump- term.
4. Haque, Umair, “America’s Battle to Save its Democracy from Trumpism,” Medium Daily Digest, July 18, 2023, https://medium.com/eudaimonia-co/ americas-battle-to-save-its-democracy-from-trumpism-a6067eeff029.
5. Madison, James, “The structure of the government must furnish the proper checks and balances between the different departments,” The Federalist Papers, Federalist No. 51, 1787-88,
